When it opened in 1998, the Las Olas Riverfront cinema was a 23-screen, state-of-the-art multiplex run by Regal Cinemas. In only four years, it went sharply downhill, as I guess profits were unsatisfactory and therefore management and floor employees were scarce. I visited for a showing of ‘Town & Country’ one day and had an altercation with a disruptive patron who had wandered in from another film. It took me over five minutes to find an employee, by which point the offender had vanished after tossing my belongings from my seat to the aisle.

Sunrise Cinemas, a South Florida-based chain, relieved Regal of the chore of running this theater, pared the venue down to only 15 screens, and is hardly doing a better job. I rarely go to this theater — only when the film of choice is not playing elsewhere — but every time I do, I experience some sort of technical problem, be it an audio problem or a projection problem. When I went to see ‘Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut’ with a girlfriend and a friend, the anamorphic film was being projected as a spherical 1.85:1 film, thus distorting the image by making it too narrow. I had to complain three times before this mistake was corrected, and this introduced conflict to an otherwise rewarding social gathering.

The managers at this theater, as employed by Sunrise Cinemas, are bullies, plain and simple. Unapologetic at best and bellicose at worst, they’re the bottom of the barrel of uptight suburban trash and I’d sooner miss a film entirely than ever go to this venue again.